Project intake database

Project Intake Databases are an effective means of managing the processing and routing of new jobs or campaigns. Effectively using a Project Intake Database can help to reduce delays by ensuring completeness of information and automating the notification and routing of new project requests.

Use Case

Lovely Interiors is an interior design firm with clients all across North America. As such, their sales representatives are constantly on the road looking to secure new business. When deals are closed, a sales rep will typically email signed agreements to the Billing department and complete a job order. Job orders frequently come in with missing specifications, and it has become problematic for Lovely Interiors, as project managers are then wasting a lot of time and effort to track down sales team members to obtain the appropriate information. Moreover, the Account team finds it difficult to assign project managers because they don't have a way of viewing a centralized queue of all new project requests. Lovely Interiors has decided to standardize and automate their intake process by using iMeet® Central databases and workflow to help alleviate frustration.

Features Used:

Databases

Workflow

Creating the Project Intake Database

Creating an effective Project Intake database requires making considerations about what information is required to initiate a project, who is responsible for taking action on a project request and at which steps different users will be engaging with a request.

Database Fields

The most basic project intake forms should generally contain the following fields, all of which should be set as Required (Field Type):

Customer Name (Text or Relational Field)

Project Title (Text)

Account Owner (Internal User)

Project Manager (Internal User)

Project Status (Multiple Choice Drop-Down)

New (default)

Needs More Information

Open

Closed

Specifications (Can be one or multiple fields depending on organizational needs)

These are the key fields that will help drive the routing and notification scheme. Additional fields can also be added to capture and associate details and specifications related to a specific project or job request.

Workflow Configuration

There are three different types of workflow rules that will be used in the project intake process.

Notification Rules:

When a record is Added, notify Account Team Lead

When Project Status is New and is changed, notify Account Team Lead

When a record is Modified and Project Manager IS NOT EMPTY, notify Project Manager record variable

When a record is Modified and Project Status is Closed and is changed, notify Account Team Lead

Task Rules

When a record is Modified and Project Status is "Needs More Information", assign task to Created By record variable

Action Rules

When Project Manager IS NOT EMPTY, set Project Status to Open

How it Works

Sales rep adds a new record to the Database

Account Team Lead is notified of new project request

Account Team Lead reviews requirements indicated in database record

If incomplete, Project Status is changed to Needs More Information and the creator of the record is assigned a task indicating that additional information is required

If complete, a PM is assigned in the Project Manager field. Workflow is triggered to change the Project Status to "Open"

Project Manager receives email notification that the project is ready to be initiated